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Suntory Open: Ikeda stays within striking distance


Filipina-Japanese Chihiro Ikeda had a closing four-birdie binge in the last eight holes for a 68 and stay within striking distance of leader Ji-Hee Lee in the 2011 Suntory Open at the Rokko Kukusai Golf Club in Kobe, Japan. Ikeda now has a 138 after an opening round 70 and is tied with Ayako Uehara and Mayu Hattori. They were three shots behind Ji-Hee, who torched the Rokko Kukusai course with a 64 for 135. Esther Lee, Chie Arimura, Hiromi Mogi and Sun-Ju Ahn on 137s are a stroke adrift off Lee. Jae-Hee Bae and Rui Kitada, with identical 139s, rounded up the top 10. A birdie on the opening hole launched Ikeda’s good round. She dropped two shots on the eight, where her tee shot landed on a fairway bunker, and the 10th, where she missed a par save. However, it didn’t deter her. Instead, she turned up the heat with birdies on No. 11 (five feet), No. 12 (two feet), No. 14 (seven feet) and No. 15 (10 feet). “She hit the ball very well today, hit 15 greens and just missed two fairways. The rough is very thick and high so very important for her to drive the ball in the fairway," said national coach Bong Lopez, who accompanied Ikeda. More importantly, Ikeda, who was runner up to Dottie Ardina in the Philippine Amateur Closed Championship last week at Wack Wack Golf & Country Club, maintained her lead in the amateur division by two off Sakura Kito of Japan. The Filipina-Japanese, who so far has three titles entering the second half of the season, is bracing for the cold weather in the third round brought about by typhoon Dodong, which is expected to hit Japan shores anytime soon. “The forecast is to be a very bad weather, rain and cold. Let’s pray that she’ll be up to the challenge. We just bought her complete set of rain gear and, hopefully, it won’t be very cold," Lopez said. – Adrian Flores, JVP, GMA News

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